


The Dying Heart

by angelus2hot



Category: Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Genre: Angst, Community: smallfandomfest, Gen, Gen Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-22
Updated: 2011-07-22
Packaged: 2017-10-21 19:13:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/228672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelus2hot/pseuds/angelus2hot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iolaus helps Hercules get through the one year anniversary of his wife and kids' death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dying Heart

**Author's Note:**

> **Title:** The Dying Heart  
>  **Fandom:** Hercules the Legendary Journeys  
>  **Rating:** PG  
>  **Word Count:** 1,227  
>  **Prompt:** Hercules the Legendary Journeys Hercules the one time he almost gave up  
>  **Characters/Pairing:** Hercules, Iolaus(Hercules/Deianeira implied)  
>  **A/N:** written for smallfandomfest's [Fest 09](http://smallfandomfest.livejournal.com/360931.html)

Hercules' life had never been easy. He hadn't really expected it to be. But he had thought he could have the same things most every man wanted out of life. A wife, a family, a home to call his own. He should have known better. With the queen of the gods as an enemy, he should never have risked Deianeira and his children. But he hadn't thought. That was just it, he had never thought Hera would go that far, to kill an innocent woman and children just because they were his, in her quest for vengeance against him. All because his father had had an affair with his mother. It wasn't as if he had asked for any of it. He had done nothing to deserve it. And his family had certainly never desired her wrath.

The ground was hard and unyielding but Hercules didn't notice any of it. He was too lost in his own memories. Memories of a happier time. When his children had ran and played across the hills and his wife had greeted him with open arms each time he had returned home from some adventure with Iolaus.

What he wouldn't give to be able to play a game of chase with his children; to kiss Deianeira's soft lips just once more. But because of his selfishness in wanting things he should never have wanted, he would never see his children's laughing faces or hold Deianeira in his arms again.

Iolaus sat down on the ground beside Hercules. "What are you doing, Herc?" When his friend didn't answer, Iolaus waved his hand in front of his best friend's face. "Herc?"

Hercules' felt his memories slipping away as his best friend's concerned look came into focus. "What?"

"You were a million miles away. Where were you?"

Hercules shook his head. The last thing he wanted to do was talk about loosing his wife and his children. "Nowhere."

"Please. I know you, Hercules." Iolaus stared at Hercules, raw unmitigated pain was written plainly on his face. "Wait a second. What's the day?" At the look on his best friend's face the date came to him. No wonder his friend had been lost in his thoughts.

"Herc."

Once more Hercules shook his head. He couldn't. He didn't want to talk about.

"Hercules, talk to me."

"What do you want me say, Iolaus?" Tears welled up in Hercules' eyes.

"Anything, everything." Answering tears filled Iolaus' eyes at the pain his best friend was in. "Tell me what you were thinking."

The tears that had threatened began to fall slowly down his face. "They have been gone a year. It's been a year since I've held my sons and my daughter in my arms; a year since I've seen Deianeira smiling at me." His lips trembled as his spoke. "And I miss them more and more every day. I feel like my heart's dying. And I don't know how to stop it. I don't know if I want to. Without Deianeira and my children I don't want to go on any longer."

"I'm sorry, Hercules." Iolaus didn't know what else to say. Sorry just sounded so trite and overused but he was worried anything else he could say would sound meaningless. Thank the gods he had never had to experience the loss of his family because of the petty jealously. He didn't know how Hercules lived day to day with the suffering.

"It's not your fault, Iolaus. It's mine. I should have..." His sentence trailed off as Iolaus interrupted.

Iolaus groaned inwardly. Sometimes he just wanted to slap the big guy. He had thought after all this time Hercules would have understood he wasn't to blame for any of it. "How do you figure it's your fault?"

"I knew Hera blamed me for my father's infidelity. But I fell in love with Deianeira and I married her anyway. I fathered children. I shouldn't have, I didn't have the right. If I had only....."

Once more Iolaus interrupted. "So let me get this straight. If not for you, Deianeira, your two sons and your daughter would still be a live. It's your fault your wife and kids were killed. It's your fault the queen bitch of the gods hates her husband so much it spills over into your life. That about right?"

 _Wasn't that what he had just said?_ Without a word Hercules closed his eyes and nodded his head.

"Huh, well how very god like of you."

His eyes flew open. How could Iolaus say something like that? He was nothing like the gods! Of all the things Iolaus could have said that was the one thing guaranteed to get his attention. "What?"

"You heard me. You're taking credit for life and death. That's the very thing a god would do." Iolaus grasped his best friends shoulder. "Listen to me. Nothing could have stopped that fireball, Hercules. Not even you." Iolaus wisely didn't mention the fact that the only one who had had a prayer of stopping any of it was the one person who had refused. Zeus, Hercules' father.

"I don't know why I go on. I should have just given up trying to save the world against the gods a long time ago. If I had maybe, just maybe they would still be alive today."

"It wouldn't have worked, Herc."

"Why not?"

"For one it isn't in you not to help others. Two, it wasn't your fighting against the gods but your birth that caused Hera's hatred of you and in turn she was the one responsible for your family's death. And three, I would never have let you give up. Not a year ago and certainly not now."

"Iolaus, I....."

"Look, Herc. I get it. You miss your family. I don't blame you. But you have to go on." Iolaus hated to think much less say what he was about to say. But maybe Hercules needed it. Maybe it would help. "What about Hades?"

"What about him?"

"Maybe he could..."

It finally dawned on Hercules what Iolaus was getting at. He quickly began to shake his head. He knew if he ever entered the Elysian Fields again he would never want to leave no matter what the consequences. But before he could say anything out of nowhere an opening appeared and before his very eyes he saw his wife and his children. They seemed so close he could almost reach out his hand and touch them.

As he watched his best friend stare at his family, Iolaus said a silent prayer of thanks to Hades. Apparently, not all of the gods hated Hercules and wanted him to suffer.

As the image of his wife and children playing in the Elysian Fields began to fade, he knew Iolaus was right. He couldn't give up. There was no way he could let people suffer because of the petty whims of the gods. He had to help those who needed him. And he could take comfort in the fact that someday he would be with Deianeira and his children again. As long as he had Iolaus by his side he could be patient. Hercules wiped the tears from his eyes before he turned to look at his best friend. "Iolaus?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for not letting me give up."

Iolaus clapped his best friend on the back. "Anytime."


End file.
